Movie review: ‘Kong’ reboot is an entertaining rumble in the jungle

Friday

Mar 10, 2017 at 12:01 AM

Dana Barbuto More Content Now

Move over you big ape, John C. Reilly is the real behemoth in “Kong: Skull Island.” Reilly, a castaway on the movie’s titular atoll, flat out steals the show from under the overgrown gorilla as World War II pilot Hank Marlow. He’s the film’s heart and soul, and his character arc pays off so nicely you just might shed a tear. I did.

Equally surprising is director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who moves up confidently into the big leagues on the heels of his indie debut, “The Kings of Summer.” Working from a screenplay by a trio of writers who turn the Kong legend inside out, Vogt-Roberts dutifully erases the bad taste left by Peter Jackson’s 2005 reboot. He even gives the 1933 Fay Wray classic a run for its money by following the edict that bigger is always better. And with Vogt-Roberts, size really does matter, as he and his team of special-effects wizards double the height of the original Kong, converting him into a 100-foot tall ball of irritable fur.

With the exception of a saggy middle, this “Kong” is tight and fast, gaining speed as it races toward a climactic showdown between Kong and the dreaded Skull Crawler, a dinosaur-like subterranean dweller who rises up after a crew of bomb-dropping humans disturbs the precious eco-system. These beasts are Kong’s mortal enemies — more so than humankind.

Their heavyweight fight is certifiably epic, even though it (excuse the expression) apes the final scene in “Jurassic World” between the T-Rex and Indominus Rex. Oh, and be sure to stick around for a post-credits teaser that promises a mega meeting between Kong and Godzilla.

Supplementing Reilly and the ape, is a high-class cast led by Samuel L. Jackson’s military commander, Tom Hiddleston’s expert tracker, Brie Larson’s war photographer and John Goodman’s scientist. They’re game for anything. The writers — Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly — also shed the beauty-and-the-beast template, along with the racial overtones of Kong’s past, to focus on themes of environmental preservation and kindness and tolerance as the best weapons against hate. These are certainly timely topics. There’s even the island inhabitants, who live in a walled-off area of the island that’s peaceful and crime-free. You can connect your own dots as it pertains to the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

You don’t need to be familiar with Kong’s past to enjoy this reimagining — it’s neither a sequel nor prequel. You just need to be a lover of action-adventure. The movie gets started in 1944, during World War II, when two pilots — one American, one Japanese — crash land on Skull Island and encounter Kong. Flash forward 28 years. It’s 1973, troops are pulled out of Vietnam. Goodman’s scientist Bill Randa heads to Capitol Hill to secure funding for his excursion to the uncharted island in the South Pacific. Why now? Because “there will never be a more screwed up time in Washington,” his character says, hoping to capitalize on the chaos surrounding Watergate. (By the way, that line drew a lot of laughs from the audience.) So off he goes with a young geologist (Corey Hawkins) in tow. Each of the major players are recruited, including a troop of soldiers (Toby Kebbell, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann) 2 days away from going home.

It’s a treacherous trip to the island. Lives are lost. Once there, Kong immediately thins the flock, swatting those Pennsylvania Steel made military choppers out of the air like they are irritating mosquitoes. There are some creative kills that might make you squirm. A good portion of the movie oscillates between two groups en route to an extraction site on the other side of the island. Along the way, there are scuffles and skirmishes, bloodthirsty spiders, snakes, flying dinosaurs, and craggy terrain and dense bush to navigate. The body count is high. Jackson’s Preston Packard is a live wire, naturally. My biggest gripe is with the characterization of Larson’s Mason Weaver. Larson, last year’s Oscar-winner for the kidnap-thriller “Room,” isn’t given much to do. Ultimately, because she’s blonde and wears a tight tank top, the job of “taming” Kong will fall to her. She’ll land in his big, hairy paw, but it’s so forced and obvious. Luckily, there is Reilly. His story is the one with bite.

— Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@ledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.